Cast Turbo Manifolds

[Mad RS]

Hey Guys,
I have a custom manifold on my 4agte but it has been made with thin walled material and is cracking every 3 months or so. I don't have the coin to get a better one made nor the skills to make one myself.

What are the cast manifolds that you see on Ebay like?? They definitely don't have the equal length runners like a custom manifold but some people I talk to say that it doesn't matter. I know they are ugly (compared to a custom) but do they work\last??

What are you thoughts??

[Jimmee1990]

The log style ones I've seen on eBay are pretty crappy in materials, machining and flow, so I would steer clear of those. Equal length isn't as critical with turbo setups as with N/A engines, but if they are massively different it will still have a negative effect.

Is your manifold braced at all? It could be the fact that there isn't anything to support the weight of the turbo and bracing it properly might fix your issue. Otherwise I would say your best bet would be to bite the bullet and get a simple steam pipe manifold made up, and you'll never have any more issues.

[Mad RS]

Thanks for the reply Jimmee.

Yeah my manifold is braced but it is only made of 1.3mm steel. That and the lumpy cams probably doesn't help the issue. I've been quoted $750+ for a custom manifold but that's out of the budget for now.

[Javal]

You might want to look in to the Kelway manifolds that AJPS sell. High mount ones are priced a bit better and by all accounts they're very durable.

[AJPS]

thanks josh, i have pmed him

they have definitely stood the test of time

[Skylar]

We had a HKS knock off mani on a 4a feeding a T28. The car came onto boost and drove but it wasn't siiiick. Still felt turbo-ey and made some power but died off hard up top. Could never get the car to idle smooth. I thought it might have been a no idle control issue but my SR20 on first start up on a MS3X using a base map idled rock solid with no tuning.
We switched over to a kelway high mount manifold and top-end opened right up and exhaust note on WOT went from meh to KILL, with a heavy dose of violence. The car pulled hard onto boost with the kelway mani whereas the log was slower to come onto boost, not necessarily much later but it's more creeping on as opposed to boost ramping on steeply. Oh and idled cleaned right up. Wasn't to do with tuning at all. Barely touched the (idle area) tune from memory, we might have leaned it out because there was less contamination.

My mate did the opposite and went from this goofy looking tubular manifold back to a stock cast manifold (CA18). That car felt fast as hell for a stock motor car then after it went back to cast manifold, the feel of the engine changed and felt boring.

So yeah, don't cheap out on this. Get a tubular mani. and kelway are good.

[Mad RS]

To cool. Thanks for the info boys. I might be coming into some money soon so I think I will be looking at AJPS's manifold.

Once again thanks for the info.

[Hen may possibly be a nut]

I know you say the manifold is braced, but for a cheap fix could you just add more bracing to support where it normally cracks? And possibly from something else (eg engine side of the engine mount) to the turbo flange to support the weight of the turbo?

[AJPS]

thanks for the feedback ken!

[maxhag]

^^^ +1